This research is themed around development of a tidal turbine simulation platform based on a three-dimensional oceanographic numerical modellling environment; more specifically, parameterization of effects of tidal turbine on flow current, turbulence, waves and sediment transport. In this context, the author adopts concepts in the current module, the turbulent module, the wave module and the sediment transport module of Finite-Volume, primitive equation Commmunity Ocean Model (FVCOM) to simulate the effects of tidal turbines. The retarding force concept is employed in the current module, working as an additional body force exerted on the water to simulate the turbine induced water deceleration. Three terms are added into the MY-2.5 turbulence closure to model turbine related turbulence generation, dissipation and turbulence length-scale interference. The built-in feature 'OBSTACLE' of the wave module is used to simulate the reduction of wave height caused by the turbine. The enhanced sediment suspension due to the turbine in motion is represented by an additional bottom shear stress term, entraining an extra portion of sediment particles from the bed into the water. Due to the fact that the bedload sediment transport module of FVCOM is not fully developed, it is not considered in this research; development of such a module is beyond the scope of this project. Coefficients of the turbine simulation terms are calibrated based on experimental data collected in the 'Total Environment Simulator laboratory flume' at the University of Hull, in which a prototype experiment was conducted. Small scale simulations carried out using ANSYS FLUENT also provided complementary calibration data. An idealized water channel model with mesh resolution fined down to the size of the simulated turbine is built to carry out the coefficient calibration. In general, the developed turbine simulation platform is capable of predicting reliable flow velocity, turbulent level, wave height and suspended sediment transport in the far wake region of the turbine, given proper values assigned to the relating coefficients. In addition, preliminary sensitivity tests are carried out to investigate the impact of these coefficients to the model's overall prediction to reveal the model's application range. Upon the satisfactory choices of the coefficients, the platform is applied to a 15m scale idealized single turbine case as well as a regional scale case based on the realistic hydrodynamics off the Anglesey coast, north-west of Wales. A series of single turbine tests are carried out with and without the turbine implementations, i.e. the coefficients represent turbine effects being switched on and off, in order to reveal the differences between the baseline case (no turbine) and case with turbine effects. Under realistic natural tidal and wave conditions, the Anglesey coast case showcases impact from a large scale turbine farm to both local and regional processes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:721984 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Li, Xiaorong |
| Publisher | University of Liverpool |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3006766/ |
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